Aided by Nature
by Alex the Anachronistic
Summary: Oh no. Going back to nature makes everyone mad. Severus Snape writes poetry? Luna Lovegood, charms professor? Dancing around in the dark under the statue of Anno the Wise? This short story will make you gag. The pairing alone could do that, I suppose.


Aided by Nature

DISCLAIMER: I am making no money off of this, and this site isn't either. This is purely fan-fiction written by a weird person who has absolutely nothing better to do than write this stuff. I don't own Harry Potter, Hogwarts, etc. J.K.R. does.

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It was midnight in Hogwarts, a fine warm spring evening of the first day back at school after Easter vacation. The night was heavily perfumed with the scents of newly-budding spring flowers from the Greenhouses and grounds. The darkness was warm and rich like a freshly-baked devils' food cake. It could almost make one's mouth water at its enveloping blackness. It was a clear night too; the stars twinkled like a thousand candles above in an expansive and perfect enchanted ceiling. The moon shone its silver threads upon the earth in a beautifying ray; anything that came in contact with it, be it a mere smashed metal bottle cap or a magnificent jewelled necklace was instantaneously made to be worth looking at. The water of the lake glistened under its gentle glow, and the trees of the dark forest were silhouetted against the backdrop of the glittering sky to appear even more ominous and foreboding than it did in the light. A lethargic breeze tugged at the bright green leaves of the wizened trees, causing them to flutter with a slight annoyance. It was, all in all, a beautiful night worthy of a romantic escapade.

And down a trellis came a girl. Well, technically no longer was she a girl. If one is a qualified professor past the age of 21, even in the strict rules of the Muggle world that still is an adult. Nevertheless, Luna Lovegood still possessed her youth-like qualities in the form of her face and personality; thus most people still mistook her for merely a girl of perhaps sixteen. So Luna had not changed much since her sixth year at Hogwarts, in her ideas nor her facial features. But she had gained an enormous amount of experience and had faced enormous trials in the time between her last year of schooling and now.

To begin with, in her sixth year alone, Luna had helped the re-founded Dumbledore's Army to gain three horocruxes from the possession of the Death Eaters (the last horocrux Harry had taken care of without assistance). Luna also had undergone the trial of her father dying at the hands of Voldemort's minions because in the magazine he edited, _The Quibbler,_ he had knowingly published codes of battle plans of the Order, after which she joined the Order of the Phoenix officially. In addition, Luna even had battled Lord Voldemort one-on-one for a period of a whole thirty minutes while waiting for re-enforcements after Neville, Ron, and even Hermione had been defeated, though none of them died for the ordeal, fortunately. (A/n: Harry, at the time, was, distracted with playing the hero. Again. Somewhere else. But you didn't need to know that for this story. I just thought you might be curious.) All this, along with the all the stress of being in a war while in school, was amazingly difficult for Luna to cope with, as it might be expected with any other teenager. Yet somehow she managed to get it all under control and she seemed none the worse (except for the fact that she no longer had either of her parents) afterwards. And she even finished her last year of schooling the next term with the money her father had left behind, which was just enough to pay for her last year at Hogwarts and then some.

After her last year of schooling, Luna spent a year floating around aimlessly looking for a job until Professor Flitwick, her old head of house, decided that enough was enough and that he was going to finally retire. And so Dumbledore, at Flitwick's recommendation (or so he told her, but I myself doubt that it was the case) offered her the post of both Head of Ravenclaw and Charms Professor. The proposal was just too good to refuse, and so Luna moved into Hogwarts again, this time as a teacher.

Luna actually did quite well in her new surroundings. She was constantly surrounded by familiar faces in both her students and colleagues (i.e. Minerva McGonagall, Albus Dumbledore, Rubeus Hagrid, Severus Snape, etc.) so it gave her a sense of familiarity. Charms, coincidentally, had always been her best and favorite subject along with Ancient Runes and Defense Against the Dark Arts, so it was enjoyable for her.

But now Luna was climbing down the trellis. Why, you ask? Well, simply because the night was enticing her with its velvety touch, and she wished to embrace it as lovingly as it did her. It was a two-story climb from her window to the ground down a rickety wooden lattice contraption with vine roses growing upon it, so Luna made her way down carefully.

Finally she alighted to the ground, the dewy wet grass long and thick around her bare feet. As she stepped into the moonlight, the dark blue shimmering blanket she wore draped like a cloak around her made her look somewhat mysterious. She wore a dark felt fedora over her long dirty-blonde locks, which cloaked her neck and framed her face. In the shining silver glow of the full moon (we may safely assume that Remus Lupin is somewhere transforming…ahem, sorry…) she appears even paler than usual.

Luna takes a slow step towards the fork in the gravel path, at which are located a wicker gazebo, a marble statue of Anno the Wise, and a bubbling water fountain. Now one foot is on the gravel and one foot is on the grass. She hesitates sticking to the path, but the decides against it, and slowly moves her foot back onto the grass to join its partner. Delicately, with the grace of a dainty flower fairy, she makes her way across gently the grass, pausing here and there to stuff her nose into the half-closed buds of narcissi, freesia, roses, hyacinth, columbine, honeysuckle, and a thousand other flowers which scent the night with their intoxicating fragrances.

After a time, she finally arrives at the fork in the path with the fountain, the statue, and the gazebo with its marble benches. Dreamily, she lets her cloak fall, revealing a plain white spaghetti-strap pyjama shirt and a dark navy pair of long pyjama pants. She then swathes the cloak around the statue's shoulders and her hat too on the statue's head instead, as though it were a real person. And then, she suddenly, begins to dance to the music in her head, there on the slick wet grass with naught to observe but the haughty-yet-smiling moon and the statue of the dead wizard. It is a clumsy, fiery, yet energetic dance, for Luna was never once trained in ballet or such. However, it is strangely entrancing for both us, the observers, and her, the partaker.

Finally, exhausted, Luna lets herself drop on the soft mounds of grass. After a few moment's rest, she rises again, retrieves the blanket and hat from the statue, and goes to sit at the base of the fountain, shivering despite the fact that she was exercising so just minutes ago. She intends to simply stay out here for another hour or so until she becomes sleepy, then go back up to her room and sleep. However, she was not destined to do that…at least, not tonight.

A dark shadow moves across the grass from the opposite direction that Luna had come from her window. Luna, gazing at the stars, would not have noticed it if the figure the shadow belonged to hadn't stepped inadvertently on a twig. At the sound of the slight cracking noise of it, though, Luna looked up and saw him.

It was Severus Snape. He, unlike Luna, was still donned in his daily clothes; he would never run the risk of being seen in his pyjamas when he was not in his personal chamber except in true emergency. (And that would have been nothing less than Barty Crouch looking through his office without permission in the dead of the night. But never mind…) His long (for a man's) hair was pulled back behind his shoulders by the teasing breeze. He held a book under his arm and a quill in his hand. Without hesitation he came forward to the gazebo and sat down on one of the benches, without noticing Luna. He opened his book, which apparently was blank, and gazed about for a while at the nature in front of him. Finally, with a small and rare smile, he licked the end of his quill and began to scratch something onto the page.

Luna, at this, was confronted with two choices; continue to hide and possibly freeze to death until Snape left, or else go and make her presence known to him. She did not like either of those choices, but the most physically uncomfortable one by far was the first, so she went with her second alternative.

She got up and walked over to him. His back was towards her as he crouched, writing only by the light of the moonshine in his large book, and the bareness of her feet deadened the sound of the grass as she walked cautiously over to him. Thus, when she was four inches away from him and looked over his shoulder, he didn't even notice her.

What was very curious, though, was what Snape was writing in the book. It appeared to be a sort of…well…sort of a love poem. Perhaps it was impolite…no, very impolite…but Luna read it as he composed every line.

_The moon shines with the divine beauty of the angels_

_And I can think of nothing but your name_

_The scent of flowers fills the air_

_And I can think of nothing but your perfume  
The dewdrops on the grass blades shine delicately_

_And I can think of nothing but your beautiful hair_

_You are the world to me,_

_Though you would never know it_

_And through the beauty of the world _

_I see naught but your face_

_And though I can never deserve you_

_And though I know you'll never love me_

_I think of you every minute of every day,_

_And my heart is eternally in your debt._

_My words may be just words on paper_

_Yet they are potent with my feeling_

_If only words could convey_

_The aching of my soul_

_But I am old and you are so young_

_And there is nothing else to say_

_I love you forever, Luna—_

Luna, at this, with wide eyes and a gasp, tapped Severus on the shoulder. He spun around so fast that it was amazing; he almost looked scared. He was very surprised indeed when he came face to face with the subject of his poetry just a second after penning her name. It must have seemed as though there was a miraculous summoning charm on the book for a moment. Snape seemed, even white as he was in the moonshine, to turn even whiter as he stared in disbelief at Luna. However, when he finally managed to get a hold of himself, he slammed the book shut and jumped up.

"Severus!" exclaimed Luna, grabbing his arm. Despite the fact that the poetry itself was not very good, Luna fully comprehended that Severus meant every word he said in it. Why else would he write it?

Snape, however, jerked his arm angrily from gentle yet firm grasp. "That was never meant for you to see," he snarled, and he turned and strode away back in the direction that he had come from. Luna, however, stopped him.

"Severus!" she said again, jumping in front of him, "Why did you never tell me?"

His eyes only held daggers for her inquiry. Dangerous daggers at that.

"Why didn't you, though?" asked Luna again as she tried to keep up with him. She was rather shorter than him.

"Because I never meant for you to know!" declared Snape vehemently. Luna, despite the fact that he loved her so, had just trespassed on the private property of his mind and soul. Now she knew too much about that area, that there was actually more than just rocks and dead plants there. There was some amount, if not a lot, of heart to him. There was water, there were green plants, there was life in him. And to this day, the only person who had ever infringed at all upon that sacred ground of his was Dumbledore, and that was only because he attacked and was successful in piercing Snape at the most vulnerable point in his psychological life—his teenage years. Sure, he had shown his true colours when he showed that his allegiance was not to the Dark Lord and instead to the Ministry and the Order by almost sacrificing himself for them, but he had never allowed anyone so far deep into his private thoughts…well, true, Potter had been through his memories with the Occulmency lessons, but those were only memories, not thoughts. But anyhow, he was not yet prepared to show off his feelings and inner contemplations. And certainly he had never intended to divulge his most inner thoughts of how he was in love, especially not to the person in question!

Luna, though, grasped his hand. "Severus," she said, her face glowing, "If only you had told me before…"

Snape turned to her with a glare. "What?" he asked bluntly.

Luna, suddenly, threw her arms around him. "Would you believe it," she said with a near sob, "I love you too."

This was certainly not anything that he would have predicted before. "What?" he asked again stupidly, not daring to believe it.

Luna, at this, burst out in elated sobs on his shoulder. Awkwardly, he patted her on the back. "For how long?" he asked when she managed to take a deep breath to calm herself.

"Ever since I first came to Hogwarts, you've struck my fancy," was Luna's timid reply. She laughed a bit, still clinging to Severus as though she were drowning and he was a piece of floating driftwood. "How about you?" she asked softly.

Severus gruffly replied, somewhat ashamedly, "Your second year."

"Good Merlin!" exclaimed Luna. "We were destined for each other. If only I had plucked up the courage to say something sooner."

"Or I," said Severus. He then locked his arms around Luna. They proceeded to share a passionate kiss there in the moonlight.

Two weeks later they were married. The wedding was small, since neither had parents or siblings to pay for anything larger, and they both lived off a teacher's salary. The only people who attended were Dumbledore, McGonagall, Flitwick, Slughorn (he somehow got himself invited…) Lupin and Tonks, Hermione and Ron (who made a good couple), Harry and Ginny (who also made a good couple) and Neville. It was a nice, quiet affair, and they honeymooned at the end of the school year all summer.

They never would have found each other's mutual love if it hadn't been for the aid of nature's beauty calling them both out that night.


End file.
